Nils Pratley on finance + Switzerland | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance+world/switzerland
Indexen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015Tue, 03 Mar 2015 22:54:23 GMT2015-03-03T22:54:23Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015The Guardianhttp://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttp://www.theguardian.com
HSBC and tax: complexity is no excusehttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2015/feb/23/hsbc-and-tax-ignorance-stemming-from-complexity-is-no-excuse
<p>Directors may not be able to know everything, but surely they can be expected to spot obvious commercial risks</p><p>Running a big bank ain’t easy, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/23/hsbc-chief-paid-7m-pounds-last-year-profits-slide-tax-avoidance-apology">HSBC’s &pound;7.6m chief executive Stuart Gulliver argued on Monday</a>. You can’t possibly be expected to know what all the staff are up to. Hell, nobody makes a similar demand of senior folk in the armed forces or the Church of England. If bank bosses had to know every detail, they would employ about 100 people, tops.</p><p>In the abstract, Gulliver’s plea has some limited merit. A board of directors of any large company relies, to some degree, on systems, processes and procedures. And, in Gulliver’s case, he clearly arrived in the top job in 2011 with a firm idea that HSBC had become too big to manage efficiently and resolved to fix the problem. As he said repeatedly on Monday, HSBC now has 257,000 staff, a lot fewer than the 330,000 it had in 2007, and the group is organised via just four divisions rather than 88 country heads.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2015/feb/23/hsbc-and-tax-ignorance-stemming-from-complexity-is-no-excuse">Continue reading...</a>HSBCWorld newsBankingCorporate governanceSwitzerlandMon, 23 Feb 2015 15:14:46 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2015/feb/23/hsbc-and-tax-ignorance-stemming-from-complexity-is-no-excusePhotograph: Harold Cunningham/Getty ImagesA Swiss flag flies above a HSBC logo.Photograph: Harold Cunningham/Getty ImagesA Swiss flag flies above a HSBC logo.Nils Pratley2015-02-23T15:14:46ZHSBC's Presbyterian principles forgotten in the global dash for cashhttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2015/feb/09/hsbcs-presbyterian-principles-forgotten-in-the-global-dash-for-cash
<p>Bank became so big it lost touch with old-fashioned Scottish banking values which laid foundations for its success</p><p>HSBC’s response to the Swiss shenanigans is wearingly familiar. It is similar to the line the bank took after its operations in Mexico and Colombia were exposed in 2012 as being wide open to money laundering. We were told then that HSBC’s federated corporate structure was partly to blame. It prevented group management getting to grips with tricky local details, such as spotting those customers who were running multibillion-dollar drug cartels.</p><p>In a Swiss context the corporate plea is cast this way: “HSBC was run in a more federated way than it is today and decisions were frequently taken at a country level. In January 2011, new group management fundamentally changed the way HSBC is structured, managed and controlled.”</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/09/margaret-hodge-accuses-ex-chairman-lord-stephen-green-over-hsbc-files">No 10 forced to defend PM's appointment of former HSBC boss as trade minister</a> </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2015/feb/09/hsbcs-presbyterian-principles-forgotten-in-the-global-dash-for-cash">Continue reading...</a>HSBCBankingSwitzerlandLord GreenCorporate governanceTax avoidanceTax and spendingTaxBanking reformFinancial sectorMon, 09 Feb 2015 15:49:53 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2015/feb/09/hsbcs-presbyterian-principles-forgotten-in-the-global-dash-for-cashPhotograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty ImagesThe HSBC Private Bank in Geneva.Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty ImagesThe HSBC Private Bank in Geneva.Nils Pratley2015-02-09T15:49:53ZAfter Royal Mail, IPOs need to deliver more transparencyhttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/dec/18/royal-mail-ipos-need-deliver-transparency
Vince Cable will be pleased that Lord Myners thinks he was ‘professional’. But that doesn’t mean flotations can’t be improved<p>Only two views are required to make a market, so we are now spoilt for choice about the size of the undervaluation of Royal Mail at flotation, or IPO. Were taxpayers short-changed by &pound;750m, as the National Audit Office suggested in April. Was the figure &pound;1bn, as the MPs on business select committee believed in July? Or is &pound;120m-&pound;180m a truer estimate, as Lord Myners’ report argued on Thursday?</p><p>Prefer Myners’s lower range. It’s the sober one. First, no seller in a big IPO ever expects to squeeze out the last drop of value. Second, the &pound;750m-&pound;1bn guesses rest heavily on the wild trading that occurred after Royal Mail’s listing at 330p in October last year, which pushed the price as high as 600p in January (versus 405p today).</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/dec/18/royal-mail-ipos-need-deliver-transparency">Continue reading...</a>Royal MailBusinessIPOsFTSEStock marketsVince CablePoliticsAirline industryTravel & leisureInternational Airlines GroupHeathrow airportEnvironmentHeathrow third runwayAir transportUK newsRoubleRussiaGlobal economyCurrenciesSwitzerlandThu, 18 Dec 2014 21:36:29 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/dec/18/royal-mail-ipos-need-deliver-transparencyPhotograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesRoyal Mail: undersold by between £120m and £1bn, depending on who you believe. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesRoyal Mail: undersold by between £120m and £1bn, depending on who you believe. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesNils Pratley2014-12-18T21:36:29ZPhilipp Hildebrand had to go to protect the Swiss National Bankhttp://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2012/jan/09/philipp-hildebrand-goes-save-snb
The compromised president of the Swiss central bank had no choice but to resign – one only wonders why it took him so long<p>&quot;Stepping down is not an issue for me,&quot; declared Philipp Hildebrand last Thursday. What happened over the course of a weekend to change his mind?</p><p>Monday's statement from the (now former) chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) did not answer the question directly. Hildebrand said he had decided to quit because he couldn't provide final proof that his wife's controversial foreign exchange trade was made without his knowledge. But presumably that was also the case last week. Something else must have happened.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2012/jan/09/philipp-hildebrand-goes-save-snb">Continue reading...</a>SwitzerlandBusinessEuropeWorld newsSwiss francCurrenciesBankingMon, 09 Jan 2012 15:59:23 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2012/jan/09/philipp-hildebrand-goes-save-snbPeter Klaunzer/EPASwiss National Bank chairman Philipp Hildebrand checks his watch during the news conference following his resignation Photograph: Peter Klaunzer/EPAPeter Klaunzer/EPASwiss National Bank chairman Philipp Hildebrand checks his watch during the news conference following his resignation Photograph: Peter Klaunzer/EPANils Pratley2012-01-09T15:59:23Z